Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are standing in line with several students outside the doors of the school gym. TIM: I hate the fitness test. Those pull-ups are hard. Moby pats Tim on the back. The gym door opens. A faculty member ushers in the person at the front of the line. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks uneasy. He gestures that he and Tim should run and hide. TIM: Yeah. Quick! They duck into a room and turn on the light. There is a typed letter taped to a window in the room. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my brother was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. What is it? From, Tyler. Well, muscular dystrophy is the name for a group of medical conditions that affects how a person's muscles work. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or DMD, is the most common form of the condition. It affects about one in thirty-five hundred boys. An animation illustrates the statistic Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No. Girls can be born with DMD, too. But it's really rare. Like I was saying, kids with muscular dystrophy don't have muscles that work like they should. Muscles play a big part in the way our bodies develop and function. An animation shows a boy's muscular system growing as he grows. TIM: So a condition that's messing with your muscles is going to affect your overall health. MOBY: Beep. Children can be seen playing in a gym through a window behind Tim. TIM: It can be hard to tell when young children have a serious condition like DMD. A group of people run across a gym floor while bouncing a basketball. MOBY: Beep. TIM: There are differences going on inside of people that we just can't see. Tommy there isn't last in line because he wants to be. The effects of DMD just make him move a little slower than the other kids. A boy with a slightly impaired walk joins a line of students in a gym. TIM: Kids, and like we said, usually boys, are generally diagnosed with DMD between the ages of one and six. Images show four boys. One is a baby. Another is slightly older and being pushed in a stroller. A third is a toddler playing with a ball. A fourth is about five or six years old and playing with toy cars on the floor. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there are some noticeable symptoms. Children with DMD usually have trouble jumping and hopping. They may fall down frequently. An animation shows a boy who has fallen on the gym floor. TIM: And have problems doing things like running, climbing stairs, and getting up from seated positions. Images show a boy having trouble running and climbing stairs. Another animation shows the boy having trouble getting up from the floor. TIM: You'll see boys with DMD standing up using a move called Gower's Maneuver. Basically, they'll use their hands and arms to walk their bodies upright. The boy gets to his feet using the method Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Some of the boys walk on their toes a lot. An animation shows a bare pair of feet walking on tiptoe. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, it's because their Achilles tendons tighten up. An animation shows the muscles and tendons in a boy's lower leg tightening, raising the heel up so the foot is on its toes. The Achilles tendon is shorter than normal. TIM: All of these signs help doctors spot DMD early. An image shows a doctor examining a boy. The doctor is holding a clipboard. TIM: That's important, because the effects of muscular dystrophy are progressive, meaning they increase over time. See, DMD causes more and more muscle weakness as individual muscle cells die. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks sad. TIM: The muscles don't necessarily get smaller. Lots of times, the muscle cells turn into fat and scar tissue. So the muscle can look big, but it's not strong. An animation shows two bones meeting at a joint. Muscles flex around the bones. A cross-section shows the muscular deterioration that Tim describes. TIM: As a child with DMD grows up, the condition gets more serious. Things that most of us take for granted, like running, walking, or even hugging someone you love, become more difficult as the disease progresses. Kids with DMD will eventually need some help getting around. They'll need to hold on to something as they walk and eventually use an electric wheelchair or electric scooter. Side-by-side images show a boy using a rail to help him climb stairs and an older boy in an electric wheelchair. MOBY: Beep. TIM: No, it's not contagious. Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder that you're born with. It's caused by a change in a person's DNA sequence. Muscular dystrophy is a mistake in a part of the program that keeps muscles healthy. An animation compares healthy DNA with the DNA of someone with muscular dystrophy. Two of the bases of the DNA light up to show where the mistake is. TIM: The muscles can't produce dystrophin, a protein that acts as a shock absorber to make muscles stable. An animation shows a cross-section of muscle cell with dystrophin absorbing shock. MOBY: Beep. TIM: There's still no cure for DMD, but treatment is improving all the time. Physical therapy can slow down its progress. An animation shows a physical therapist working with a boy's leg. TIM: And the sooner therapy begins, the more effective it'll be. So early diagnosis is really important. An animation shows a therapist working with a baby. TIM: Scientists are constantly working to develop drugs that could alter the DNA sequence that codes for DMD. An animation shows a scientist in a white coat, working in a laboratory with test tubes, a computer, and other equipment. On the computer is a DNA sequence. The door to the gym opens. A member of the school faculty comes in. She has a boy with her. FACULTY MEMBER: Are we interrupting something? TIM: No. Uh, we were just... Tim pauses. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hey, I can't do the pull-ups, either. The boy moves over to Tim and stands next to him. FACULTY MEMBER: Well, in that case, perhaps you should join Tommy. TIM: Oh. Okay. Tim and Tommy both hang from the pull-up bar. Tim speaks to Tommy. TIM: All right. Are you ready? Because I'm seriously about to do one. Seriously. Tommy nods. Tim tries very hard to do a pull-up. TIM: Aargh. Tim's face gets very red. He cannot do a pull-up. Tommy does two of them with ease. TIM: Why were pull-ups even invented? I can't even hang here anymore. How are you not slipping? MOBY: Beep. Tommy is standing on Moby's back as he does his pull-ups. TIM: Oh. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts